Man, that's a sight I haven't seen in years. We always had coal heat as a kid growing up in Illinois. After living in several houses that burned lump coal we finally moved into an old house with a stoker. What a modern convenience that seemed like! You only had to tend the stove every couple of days instead of every couple of hours. The coal was delivered to us. The truck would back up to the coal chute and dump it down into the coal bin in the basement. I used to think my dad must have been very important to have his own personalized coal truck with his initials on the side of the doors. I finally figured out that E.W. stood for empty weight and not Earl Woods. One year they brought a natural gas pipe line out our way and so Dad converted the old coal stoker furnace into gas. After that we used the coal bin for winter storage of taters from the garden.Steve Woods

I am from a coal mining family in western PA. Nothing better than the smell of a coal furnace in the winter. Coal is actually one of the inexpensive, at least the direct costs, ways to heat compared to fuel oil, kerosene, electricity.

I have been looking for a few tons of coal to heat my barn but no source in SC.

We have natural gas for heat and it has dropped big time in price. Although Bob uses hay to heat his house, he lives on the 2nd floor, goats lives on the 1st floor. Their body heat warms the barn errrr I mean house. jk

CapeCodCubs wrote:We have natural gas for heat and it has dropped big time in price. Although Bob uses hay to heat his house, he lives on the 2nd floor, goats lives on the 1st floor. Their body heat warms the barn errrr I mean house. jk

Chris you know I fight fire with fire !

Later tonight you'll see a post regarding you. Ed can guess what it is. I emailed him this a few days ago, now with your insult I have the courage to post it !!! I hope you have a sense of humor cuz you're gonna need it tonight

p.s. if ya want a hint, I will NOT be photoshopping anything for this !!!!

I like a cool house. I have NO heating system. I will admit, I rent out the first floor to some people who have little kids and they keep the 1st floor warm. Being 215 year old post-and-beam there ain't nothing stopping that heat from warming my floor. Lowest you'll ever see is 54 degrees F. * Anything above 60 in here and I not only open windows, I use a window fan if necessary.

I do a lot of carpentry so my shop has a big woodstove that burns 1. Demolition materials 2. Scrap from cutting.

If I'm lucky (and always am) we get some nice coastal storms and I pick up from the side of road.

Actually, your annual heating costs are not out of line at all. Example, if I was to have to buy my wood cut and split it would be around $200.00 to $240.00/full cord then I would be looking at $2,400.00 for a full wood room. Mixed would be around $180.00/cord cut and split. Plus, your costs are a lot less than other modes of heating aside from say a mini-split or a heat pump. However, mini-splits and heat pumps take a number of years to payback for it's initial costs. If I had to heat with electric (I have a 20kw electric backup) it would probably cost me in the neighbourhood of $3,000.00 to $4,500.00 per year to heat our 3,600 square feet. Propane was killing our budget and natural gas is not available on our street. Grew up with it in town back home and I wasn't all that impressed. Preferred the wood heat at Grammy and Gramp's

I was looking on a chart I found on the net and the price is about the same for my hometown of Timmins which is in Northern Ontario. Amazing ..

Don't. I. Know. It!!!! We heat with propane, in an older house that's not insulated as well as it should be. When you couple that with the highway-robbery cost of propane (though the last delivery was a little cheaper than last year) we really spend some money on heat. Once our new house is built, I never intend to buy another molecule of it, unless it's for a gas grill!!

Dave,You don't have to work as hard as we do, but when this is free.....

We burn 6 cords during a "normal" winter to heat about 3,200 sqft. using a Regency Wood Stove in the basement and a Quadra-Fire Fireplace Insert on the 1st floor. 2nd Floor bedrooms are a comfortable 65 deg. 1st Floor is a comfy 75 deg. and the basement is a toasty 80 deg.

October 29, 2011 - Winter Storm "Alfred" allowed us to put about 20 cords of mostly Red Oak in our yard over the course of a couple of months. To this day we still see wood laying around for the taking. Seasoned-Cut-Split-Delivered hardwood is going for $175-$200 per cord. Filled up the oil tank in early Nov. for $3.60 per gallon - this 200 gals. will last us till April. If we just used oil, we would burn close to 1,200 gallon per year.

Rudi, The payback on one style heat pump can be very short. A heat pump air conditioner was only $1000 more than an air conditioner only. All it is is extra valves so that it tries to cool the outside and pump the heat inside. The payback was about 3 1/2 years. It is only good down to 41 degrees after which natural gas is cheaper. The change over is adjustable depending on the cost of gas and electric. It switches itself over and I never know the difference.

I can remember back when dad bought a ton or two of coal to burn. The house stayed a bit warmer overnight and I only had to fill the woodbox for the daytime. I thought that was great. Vern